Classic Political Philosophy for the Modern Man
Page 35
Liberty is not license—and liberalism is not licentiousness. Locke directs that while we may dispose of ourselves and our property without interference, we must not impair the life, liberty, health, or property of others. We ought to hold our governments to account to ensure that they carry out their proper function and go no further. And we ought to be tolerant—but not naively so. We must be on our guard against those who would abuse our toleration: the treacherous, the intolerant, and those who surreptitiously arrogate special privileges to themselves or their group.
Find your freedom and dignity through political engagement. This is Rousseau. It is our wants and our desires that subject us. Since we cannot return to our pre-civilizational simplicity in the state of nature, we are obliged to find our freedom and dignity through the state, so that through participation we are no longer merely subjects but also citizens.
Look with skepticism upon the harbingers of ‘rights’ and revolution. Conservative (Burke) and liberal (Bentham) agree on this. The English-speaking world, at least, has for centuries enjoyed ancient rights and liberties as the lifeblood of its tradition. Political progress is best made organically and incrementally: that way we can lock in advantages already obtained, while reaching forward for new ones. Those who assert universal rights arrogate to themselves the right to control mankind from now until the end of time; they employ ‘terrorist language’ of ‘imprescriptible rights’ to set up an overweening extra-legal order. This is ‘nonsense on stilts’. In reality, statecraft is a matter not of asserting rights but of achieving balances between varieties of good, compromises between good and evil, and sometimes also balances and compromises between evil and evil.
Observe clearly and dispassionately the merits and demerits of democracy. Democratic eras display several tendencies that are not wholly for the good. There is a tendency to privilege equality over freedom. There is a tendency towards concentration of political power. And, with potentially the most devastating and far-reaching consequences, there is a tendency towards ‘soft despotism’: the state interferes continually in all aspects of life, with the result that men are condemned to perpetual childhood and their will is broken by subjection in minor affairs. This is Tocqueville.
Be on your guard against the state’s plunder of its own citizens. Bastiat is the most clear on this: there is such a thing as ‘lawful plunder’, and it is carried out when the state seizes the goods and property of its own citizens using the legal system itself. Law doesn’t have to be this way; it can be what it always should have been—namely, justice. But men having obtained the legislative power turn it into an instrument for domineering over and plundering their fellows.
We are entitled to the maximum freedom compatible with not harming others. It is through such freedom that we obtain true diversity and self-realization in and through our communities. We have to define harm restrictively and not find it where there is only offence or insult taken. But we also need to look at harm realistically and stamp out the conduct of those who would profit from real damage done to their fellow men. This is John Stuart Mill.
Finally—step into the arena. This is President Roosevelt. We have to maintain our national consciousness and we have to preserve our nations for the generations that come after. There is much to be done and this is no time to face life with a sneer.
* * *
‘The Country of the Blind’ is a commentary on the age-old adage: In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. The saying encapsulates the belief that true understanding confers significant advantage when the great mass of men remain wholly blind to reality. H.G. Wells took a different view. In the land of the blind, he thought, the fully sighted man is not king—but heretic.
The reality is that twenty-first-century man undergoes such total immersion in the dominant narrative through mass education and mass media that it should be no surprise if philosophies outside that narrative are unbearably troubling to him. Of course, nobody is suggesting a return to the non-democratic regimes of the past. Equally, the historical record makes it plain that people have led happy and fulfilled lives under many types of political organization different from our own. It is not the type of political regime per se that has determined whether any particular polity has constituted a seedbed of human self-realization or blot on the face of human history: there have been cruel and repressive republics (Cromwellian England) and wholly fallible democracies (Weimar Germany) as there have been golden ages under traditional monarchies. The greatest of human self-realization, just like the greatest of human suffering and pain, can take place under any of the recognized political regimes. It is complacency of the highest order for a man to think that casting a ballot once every few years is sufficient to ensure the former and obviate the latter.
It is a telling aspect of ‘The Country of the Blind’ that the local girl who is rescued looks back on her former state with nostalgia: ‘The loveliness of your world,’ she explains, ‘is a complicated and fearful loveliness and mine is simple and near.’ But it was becoming aware of something of that complicated and fearful loveliness that allowed her to escape and survive. Of course, nobody knows if and when history will move forward again, nor what disruptions it will bring when it begins to do so. What we do know and can say is that our blindness is a choice. There is a wealth of insight of which this book is merely the starting point. And there is no better or more urgent moment to open our eyes—liberating ourselves by drawing insight and inspiration from the great thinkers of the Western tradition—than right now.
Bibliography
Aristotle. Politics of Aristotle. Translated by Benjamin Jowett. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1885.
Bastiat, Frédéric. Essays on Political Economy. Translated by Patrick James Stirling. 4th ed. London: Provost & Co, 1874.
Bentham, Jeremy.The Works of Jeremy Bentham. 11 vols. Edinburgh: William Tait, 1838-1843.
Burke, Edmund. The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke. 12 vols. London: John C. Nimmo, 1887.
Hobbes, Thomas. Leviathan. 1651.
Locke, John. Two Treatises of Government. London: n.p., 1764.
Locke, John. The Works of John Locke. 9 vols. 12th ed. London: Rivington, 1824.
Machiavelli, Niccolò. Machiavelli’s Prince. Translated by W.K. Marriott. London and Toronto: J.M. Dent & Sons and E.P.Dutton & Co, 1908.
Machiavelli, Niccolò. Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius. Translated by Ninian Hill Thomson. London: Kegan Paul, Trench & Co, 1883.
Mill, John Stuart. On Liberty. London: Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts & Green, 1864.
Plato. The Republic of Plato. Translated by Benjamin Jowett. 3rd ed. London: Oxford University Press, 1888.
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. The Social Contract & Discourses. Translated by George Douglas Howard Cole. London and Toronto: J.M. Dent & Sons, 1910.
Tocqueville, Alexis de. Democracy in America. Translated by Henry Reeve. 7th ed. New York: Edward Walker, 1847.
Also Available
Classic Philosophy for the Modern Man
Andrew Lynn
‘What you hold in your hands is a handbook for living: it is an account of how the greatest minds have spoken to us on how to grow and prosper as flesh-and-blood human beings.’
Classic Philosophy for the Modern Man is inspired by a single concept: that, to thrive in the world, we need ready access to the practical wisdom of our forebears. It answers that need by introducing for the general reader the most powerful and enduringly relevant works of great thinkers from around the world. Together these works teach us how to achieve excellence; how to obtain and exercise power, advance in the world, and live gracefully; how to cultivate nobility of soul; and – above all – how to be one’s own man. There is no better primer in the art of living well.
Classic Spirituality for the Modern Man
Andrew Lynn
‘ The basic premise of this book is that strength and weakness have a spiritual dimension. ’
Classic Spirituality for
the Modern Man brings the spiritual classics alive so that they can once again serve their original and true purpose: to guide and inspire us as we make our way through life. These works speak to us of the fundamental principles of spiritual wisdom, the mysterious primordial force of the ‘Tao’, the Buddhist art of maintaining mental and emotional equilibrium, and the essential features of Hindu and Sufi self-cultivation, as well as modern approaches to self-realization. There is no better primer in the art of awakened living.
Shakespeare Tales
Andrew Lynn
Shakespeare is widely considered to be the greatest playwright the world has known. But it has always been difficult and time-consuming to understand his works.
This series gives you classic prose retellings of the complete works, preserving as far as possible for the modern reader Shakespeare’s original language and mood. In this totally new edition, the tales are collected by genre and arranged chronologically. Each genre and each tale is provided with a fresh and insightful introduction. The tales are presented in five volumes: Comedies; Tragedies; Tragicomedies; Roman Tales; and English Histories. They are sumptuously illustrated by Sir John Gilbert.
Perfect for the Shakespeare aficionado, the student, and the general reader. There is no better way to understand the Bard.